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Umatilla-Morrow Head Start, Inc. (UMHS) was established in 1987. UMHS is committed to ensuring children and those who care for them are given all the tools they need to create happy and healthy futures.
In the 2021-2022 program year:
· UMHS enrolled 304 children in low-income and at-risk families, making up 31% of our total enrollments.
· An additional 200 enrolled students were either homeless, foster children, or were part of families who received financial public assistance.
UMHS operates in eight rural Eastern Oregon counties. This area has its own hurdles that affect families:
· Approximately 17.7 percent of children under five years are living in poverty in UMHS’s service area.
- This is a combined average of all counties and individual county poverty levels vary. Our highest county childhood poverty rate is in Wheeler County, where the average is 35 percent. Umatilla County, our area of highest population has a childhood poverty rate of 21.5 percent. None of our service area counties see childhood poverty rates lower than the state average of 15.7 percent.
· The rate of childhood poverty disproportionately affects the Hispanic and Latino population in these areas.
- UMHS enrolled more Hispanic and Latino children in our programs than any other demographic with an enrollment percentage of 54 percent. Nearly 25 percent of these children are dual-language learners, which are children under the age of five who have at least one parent or guardian who speaks a language other than English at home. Families where English is not a language which fluency has been achieved in are more likely to live in poverty than those who speak English fluently.
The UMHS agency is a leader in tackling local childhood poverty. It has multiple programs and services aimed at identifying and solving issues these families face.
